Fans of the TV show - yes, this website is still nominally based on one - will have noticed that 2008 came and went without my releasing a single minute of new Gameshelf video. The status I wrote about last June still stands, but I thought that it's worth writing a little more about while we're all firing up a new year.
I've now gotten myself enmeshed in two very time-hungry commercial projects, which I'm pursuing in addition to my software consulting job. I can comfortably put the necessary time into the show when I have only one-or-fewer day jobs, but with these new projects taking up all the space in my schedule that they can, this just isn't the case, sadly. I don't foresee any new episodes appearing without at least one of these projects getting resolved first.
Regarding these projects, neither is ready for me to announce in detail, but I can say that one is a game, and the other is a web-based service about games. I already help run a web service related to games, but this new one is going to be very different (even though it belongs to the same company). Its official release status is "coming soon", though I do not say from where on the mayfly-to-glacier subjective-timescale continuum this statement originates. Readers of this blog will be among the first to know about it, when it's ready. It ties in to a lot of personal feelings I have about the state of digital gaming, so really, I won't be able to shut up about it. Please consider this my apology-in-advance.
The other project is a digital adaptation of a popular tabletop game, which I hope to straight-up sell through a publisher of such things. This is going to be a long march. I got the informal blessing of the original game's publisher last spring, and began working on the prototype immediately afterwards. However, further software work's been backburnered while I've been trying to hash out a digital distribution agreement with the game's IP holders. We're in active conversation, and I'm enough of a game-geek to find this kind of negotiation rather engaging (and I have enough business experience not to let that get me into trouble), but none of this makes the process move any faster. Once we do strike a deal, you can look forward to me babbling more about it.
Really, I'm bubbling over with stuff I wanna write about on this blog, which is the one Gameshelfy thing I did manage to pull off in 2008. I'm thrilled that it has all the readers and commenters that it does, and of course I must extend my thanks to my fellow Gameshelf bloggers for making my own silence not tremendously relevant! With luck and gumption, I'll manage to share some interesting stuff anyway, soon. Here's to 2009 - may it be filled with the right kinds of games for all of us.
Good luck!
I hear you. Everyone's been patiently awaiting the next Gameshelf episode and the fans seem understanding enough. Nobody's raising any pitchforks at you. :P
I've been busy too lately with a bunch of personal stuff. I have so many things I want to write here and it's on my long to-do list.
Whatever it is you're working on, don't give up on it. I hope you succeed with it.